How WWE Restricts Referees’ Activities Outside Of The Company

WWE has a strict set of rules that employees must follow. Referees maintain the company’s edicts in the ring, but they must also follow other restrictions. This can sometimes hurt their wallets.

While speaking to Wrestle Talk, former WWE referee Mike Chioda revealed how WWE doesn’t let referees market themselves at all. They aren’t given merchandise by the company and they aren’t allowed to open their own stores either. Superstars get huge royalty checks, but that is not the case for the officials.

“It was amazing for me to see Aubrey (Edwards). She had shirts on Pro Wrestling Tees. We were never allowed to do that! I mean, we weren’t allowed to make any extra money. We weren’t allowed to be on the video games for WWE.”

“I was in one for a short time on SmackDown, until I asked if it was okay to get compensated because a lot of the guys were getting $40,000 checks every quarter, or $80,000 checks every three months, and then the Christmas one would be huge after that. I started asking about how it came, can you be here a certain amount of time to get it?”

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“A wrestler could come in and in six months or a year, they’re on the video game, and they wouldn’t do anything with the referees. As soon as I had asked, and started talking about that, I got taken out, then they paid someone in the office to do it for like two or three grand to be in the video game. It wasn’t even a referee, he was just a guy in the office, they used his likeness, then paid him one time.”

Mike Chioda has spoken in great detail in the past about getting taken out of a WWE video game. They used his likeness and he wanted to get paid. Instead of cutting a check, they just took him out of the product.

We’ll have to see if WWE changes their policies regarding referees’ outside activities. It is interesting that Drake Wuertz can do all of his QAnon stuff outside of work, but they can’t open up a PW Tees store.